By world standards, business in the US is pretty casual. The flip flop and shorts, and bring-your-parakeet-to-work days of the dot coms is over, but we are still pretty casual in the way we communicate – and in all but the most orchestrated meetings, almost any subject is fair game.
This doesn’t play well in most of the rest of the world. Top that off with the fact that we are louder and bigger than the people in most other countries, and we’re in need of a little introspection and behavior change when doing business globally. It’s simple – people do business with people with whom they’re comfortable.
This week a WSJ article, Teaching Americans How to Behave Abroad, explains the efforts Keith Reinhard, Chairman Emeritus of DDB Worldwide in getting US companies to educate their employees about behavior in other countries. There’s a “World Citizen’s Guide” with tips and recommendations for respecting others’ cultures and dealing with and enjoying environments very different than ours. One shocker to me was in the statistics: 22% of the people in the world speak a Chinese dialect, and 18% of them speak Mandarin. This compares to only 9% who speak English and 8% who speak Hindi.
I recently bought a friend a book by Scott D. Seligman, Chinese Business Etiquette. My friend, who expects to visit China to evaluate some manufacturing opportunities, said that almost every page revealed just how much he DIDN’T know about doing business in China. But instead of making him apprehensive, he said he was encouraged by the fact that this book (as well as the Guide mentioned above) made him realize that while he couldn’t be perfect, he could do his best at trying a greeting, or eating, or passing someone his business card. Both guides give the same underlying advice: make an effort to understand and participate their way, not yours.
Participating in globalization isn’t a maybe, it’s must. Now is the time to start getting prepared!
the sheer percentage of chinese speakers is due to the fact that the population in China is obscene. hehe
people who bother to find out about business customs in other countries before their trip have my deepest respect! :-)
Posted by: Melissa | April 17, 2006 4:16 AM | Permalink to Comment